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Tue, 03 Mar 2015 17:37:48 -0500Joomla! - Open Source Content Managementen-gbFormer SBC president writes on behalf of convicted New Orleans mayorhttp://baptistnews.com/ministry/people/item/28851-former-sbc-head-writes-on-behalf-of-nagin
http://baptistnews.com/ministry/people/item/28851-former-sbc-head-writes-on-behalf-of-naginFred Luter says the former New Orleans mayor convicted of corruption is a good man who made bad choices.

By Bob Allen

The immediate past president of the Southern Baptist Convention sought leniency for former New Orleans Mayor Ray Nagin, convicted in February on 20 criminal counts including bribery, fraud and money laundering, in a letter in the case file shown to reporters June 20 in a judge’s chambers.

Fred Luter, pastor of Franklin Avenue Baptist Church in New Orleans, wrote one of 31 letters of support — five written by clergy — in advance of Nagin’s sentencing on July 9.

Luter, the first African-American SBC president, said he has known Nagin since high school, and that he wasn’t the same person after Hurricane Katrina destroyed much of the city in August 2005.

“We saw it on television, heard it on the radio, and read about it in our local newspapers,” said Luter, who presided over the recent SBC annual meeting in Baltimore. “Hurricane Katrina affected Ray Nagin like many of us spiritually, emotionally and mentally.”

Luter asked U.S. District Judge Ginger Berrigan to consider that context and grant Nagin leniency.

“He is a good and decent man who made some unwise choices and decisions during a very difficult and traumatic time in his personal and professional life,” Luter said.

Luter was one of 17 business and civic leaders chosen in October 2005 for a Bring New Orleans Back Commission to advise Nagin on rebuilding New Orleans after what is considered the worst civil engineering disaster in U.S. history.

A federal grand jury indictment in January 2013 alleged that while in office Nagin took cash bribes and gifts from three city contractors and used his influence as mayor to land a contract for his family’s business with Home Depot to install granite and marble countertops.

A federal jury convicted Nagin Feb. 12 of 20 of the 21 counts against him in the indictment. Nagin maintained his innocence to reporters on the way out of the courtroom.

Nagin was initially set to be sentenced June 11, his 58th birthday, but the judge granted a request to delay the hearing to give Nagin’s attorney more time to prepare. Under federal sentencing guidelines, he could be facing at least 20 years in prison, a term his lawyer called “a virtual life sentence” and asked the judge for leniency.

Luter sat next to President George W. Bush at a dinner celebrating recovery efforts on the second anniversary of Hurricane Katrina in 2007, joining Nagin and other dignitaries including U.S. Sen. Mary Landrieu and New Orleans Saints quarterback Drew Brees at a New Orleans restaurant.

When Luter was elected to his first of two one-year terms as SBC president in 2012, Nagin called him “an amazing man and an amazing story.”

“He was a street preacher first, and now he has built this incredible congregation,” Nagin said. “And he is going to be president of Southern Baptists. I mean if that is not God at work, then I don’t know what you can say other than it is absolutely amazing.”

Luter stepped into a controversy in 2006, when Nagin apologized for claiming that Hurricane Katrina was God’s judgment on American involvement in Iraq and violence within black communities.

Critics compared the statement to comments by Dwight McKissic, senior pastor of Cornerstone Baptist Church in Arlington, Texas, at a 2005 Texas Restoration Project gathering raising the question of whether “at some point, God will hold us accountable for our sins.”

“Sometimes God does not speak through natural phenomena,” McKissic said. “This may have nothing to do with God being offended by homosexuality, but possibly it does.”

Luter told the New Orleans Times-Picayune in a story published Jan. 18 2006: "It’s a hurricane. It happened. We got the brunt of it because the levees broke, but in no way is that a sign that God is angry with New Orleans."

]]>Fred Luter says the former New Orleans mayor convicted of corruption is a good man who made bad choices.

By Bob Allen

The immediate past president of the Southern Baptist Convention sought leniency for former New Orleans Mayor Ray Nagin, convicted in February on 20 criminal counts including bribery, fraud and money laundering, in a letter in the case file shown to reporters June 20 in a judge’s chambers.

Fred Luter, pastor of Franklin Avenue Baptist Church in New Orleans, wrote one of 31 letters of support — five written by clergy — in advance of Nagin’s sentencing on July 9.

Luter, the first African-American SBC president, said he has known Nagin since high school, and that he wasn’t the same person after Hurricane Katrina destroyed much of the city in August 2005.

“We saw it on television, heard it on the radio, and read about it in our local newspapers,” said Luter, who presided over the recent SBC annual meeting in Baltimore. “Hurricane Katrina affected Ray Nagin like many of us spiritually, emotionally and mentally.”

Luter asked U.S. District Judge Ginger Berrigan to consider that context and grant Nagin leniency.

“He is a good and decent man who made some unwise choices and decisions during a very difficult and traumatic time in his personal and professional life,” Luter said.

Luter was one of 17 business and civic leaders chosen in October 2005 for a Bring New Orleans Back Commission to advise Nagin on rebuilding New Orleans after what is considered the worst civil engineering disaster in U.S. history.

A federal grand jury indictment in January 2013 alleged that while in office Nagin took cash bribes and gifts from three city contractors and used his influence as mayor to land a contract for his family’s business with Home Depot to install granite and marble countertops.

A federal jury convicted Nagin Feb. 12 of 20 of the 21 counts against him in the indictment. Nagin maintained his innocence to reporters on the way out of the courtroom.

Nagin was initially set to be sentenced June 11, his 58th birthday, but the judge granted a request to delay the hearing to give Nagin’s attorney more time to prepare. Under federal sentencing guidelines, he could be facing at least 20 years in prison, a term his lawyer called “a virtual life sentence” and asked the judge for leniency.

Luter sat next to President George W. Bush at a dinner celebrating recovery efforts on the second anniversary of Hurricane Katrina in 2007, joining Nagin and other dignitaries including U.S. Sen. Mary Landrieu and New Orleans Saints quarterback Drew Brees at a New Orleans restaurant.

When Luter was elected to his first of two one-year terms as SBC president in 2012, Nagin called him “an amazing man and an amazing story.”

“He was a street preacher first, and now he has built this incredible congregation,” Nagin said. “And he is going to be president of Southern Baptists. I mean if that is not God at work, then I don’t know what you can say other than it is absolutely amazing.”

Luter stepped into a controversy in 2006, when Nagin apologized for claiming that Hurricane Katrina was God’s judgment on American involvement in Iraq and violence within black communities.

Critics compared the statement to comments by Dwight McKissic, senior pastor of Cornerstone Baptist Church in Arlington, Texas, at a 2005 Texas Restoration Project gathering raising the question of whether “at some point, God will hold us accountable for our sins.”

“Sometimes God does not speak through natural phenomena,” McKissic said. “This may have nothing to do with God being offended by homosexuality, but possibly it does.”

Luter told the New Orleans Times-Picayune in a story published Jan. 18 2006: "It’s a hurricane. It happened. We got the brunt of it because the levees broke, but in no way is that a sign that God is angry with New Orleans."

Ronnie Floyd suceeds the Southern Baptist Convention’s first African-American president as messengers honor the owners of Hobby Lobby for standing up to Obamacare and a seminary president addresses controversy over his allowing a non-Christian to enroll as a Ph.D. student.

By Bob Allen

The new president of the Southern Baptist Convention outlined an ambitious agenda during a press conference following his election June 10 in Baltimore.

“I believe the greatest need in the Southern Baptist Convention, and quite honesly, the greatest need in the United States of America, is a Great Awakening,” said Ronnie Floyd, pastor of Cross Church in Northwest Arkansas.

Great Awakening is a term used to refer to several periods of religious revival in U.S. history. Various historians and theologians identify three or four such times of spiritual renewal.

The First Great Awakening, a wave of revivalism prior to the American Revolution, introduced preachers including Jonathan Edwards, most famous for his 1741 sermon “Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God,” today considered a classic in American literature.

“We need the next spiritual awakening,” Floyd said. “And just as Jonathan Edwards called for years ago, before the First Great Awakening, it’s time for us to come together, it’s time for us to have visible union, and it’s time for us to come together in extraordinary prayer.”

The Second Great Awakening, a religious revival beginning in the late 18th century and lasting until the middle of the 19th century, was strongest in New England and the Midwest.

Another period between the 1850s and early 20th century, marked by the birth of new denominations, the Social Gospel movement and prominent preachers such as Dwight L. Moody, is counted as a Third Great Awakening.

Some scholars add a fourth, the late 1960s and early 1970s, featuring the charismatic movement and rapid growth in conservative denominations including the Southern Baptist Convention.

“It’s been over a hundred years since the United States has experienced the last great, great movement of the Lord,” Floyd said. “We’re overdue. It’s past time. We must have that movement, not simply for the purpose of ourselves, to see thousands come to Christ, but also for the purpose of seeing the Great Commission escalated to its rightful priority in all that we do as the church.”

Out with the old

As the 157th annual session of the Southern Baptist Convention drew to a close June 11, Floyd accepted the gavel from Fred Luter, the first African American ever to serve as president of a convention formed by slaveholders in 1845.

“He will go down in Southern Baptist history as one of the most loved presidents in our lifetime,” Floyd predicted.

Luter welcomed the opportunity to express his gratitude in remarks early in the SBC President’s Address Tuesday night.

“Thank you, Southern Baptists, for allowing me to serve as your president the past two years,” Luter said. “I have been extremely honored to represent you across America and across the world.”

“I would also like to thank the members of Franklin Avenue Baptist Church in New Orleans, who have loaned me out to this convention and to the people all across this country and world the last two years,” Luter said. “Some of them are here tonight. Hundreds of them are watching tonight on the Internet.”

“I will be back to you after next week,” Luter added to the folks back home.

ERLC honors Hobby Lobby founders

The SBC Ethics and Religious Liberty Commission presented the 2014 John Leland Award for Religious Liberty to Steve and Jackie Green, whose family owned business Hobby Lobby is awaiting a decision expected this month from the U.S. Supreme Court on whether owners of for-profit businesses can refuse on religious grounds to obey rules of Obamacare.

ERLC President Russell Moore described the couple, active members of a Southern Baptist church, as “heroes of religious liberty.”

“Because of their courage, the Greens have refused to comply with the Obama administration’s Department of Health and Human Services mandate under the Affordable Care Act that they provide employees with insurance coverage for what they believe to be abortion inducing drugs,” Moore said. “They believe that God is the author of human life, and that every human life, from the moment of conception, is sacred, and they believe that the government is not the lord of their consciences.”

Moore said during the last 200 years Baptists have gotten “used to being out of jail” and sometimes “take religious liberty for granted.” He said it wasn’t always that way.

“Baptists started in prison cells in England because they would gladly say ‘God save the king’ but they knew the difference between the king and God,” Moore said. Similarly, he said, Baptists in colonial America, including the Virginia preacher for whom the Leland award is named, resisted paying for licenses to preach as a matter of conscience.

“We’re living in a time right now in which religious liberty is imperiled at home and around the world, and it is time for us to remember that we have been here before,” Moore said. “The gospel came to us in letters being written out by apostles from jail cells.”

Seminary president apologizes for Muslim flap

Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary President Paige Patterson responded with both an apology and explanation to a question during his report about why he violated written policies by allowing a Palestinian Muslim student to study archaeology in the school’s Ph.D. program.

“I owe the convention an apology, particularly to all of those of you that I have caused sorrow, heartache, disillusionment or any other kind of sorrow,” Patterson said. He also apologized to “the whole convention” for causing strife with what was “my decision and my decision alone.”

Patterson said the student, born into a poor Palestinian family, got to know members of the Southwestern community working alongside them in archaeological digs in the Middle East.

Unable to pursue a Ph.D. in Jordan, where none is available, or in Israel, because he isn’t fluent in Hebrew, and unable to afford a school in the U.S. like Duke, Harvard or Yale, Patterson said the student inquired whether an exception could be made to allow him to study at Southwestern.

Patterson said the student has caused no problems on campus and appears “very open at this point to the gospel of Jesus Christ.”

“I made an exception to a rule that I assumed, probably wrongly, the president has a right to make if he feels that it is that important,” Patterson said.

“I have apologized to you in a heartfelt way,” Patterson said. “I mean it with all my heart. I should not have disrupted the convention and did not do it knowingly. But apparently I did, and I am sorry.”

Patterson added, however, that “it is a different question” from how he will answer for that and similar decisions over the years come Judgment Day.

“I believe when I stand before the Lord God, I’m going to say: ‘Dear God, I violated a policy, but I didn’t want to stand before you with blood on my hands. Dear God, I did the best I knew how,” he said.

The incredible shrinking SBC annual meeting

Unofficial registration at the June 10-11 meeting was 5,294 messengers, up from the 5,103 last year in Houston. The 2011 convention in Phoenix, numbering 4,852 messengers, was the smallest annual meeting since World War II. The last time Southern Baptists met in Baltimore, 1940, the messenger total was 3,776.

The record attendance for an SBC annual meeting was 1985, when 45,519 messengers showed up in Dallas in the heat of a 10-year leadership struggle today some call the “conservative resurgence.”

According to recently compiled statistics, in 2013 there were 46,125 Southern Baptist churches with a total 15.7 million members.

Next year’s convention is scheduled June 16-17 in Columbus, Ohio. Future host cities are St. Louis in 2016, Phoenix in 2017 and Dallas in 2018.

Ronnie Floyd suceeds the Southern Baptist Convention’s first African-American president as messengers honor the owners of Hobby Lobby for standing up to Obamacare and a seminary president addresses controversy over his allowing a non-Christian to enroll as a Ph.D. student.

By Bob Allen

The new president of the Southern Baptist Convention outlined an ambitious agenda during a press conference following his election June 10 in Baltimore.

“I believe the greatest need in the Southern Baptist Convention, and quite honesly, the greatest need in the United States of America, is a Great Awakening,” said Ronnie Floyd, pastor of Cross Church in Northwest Arkansas.

Great Awakening is a term used to refer to several periods of religious revival in U.S. history. Various historians and theologians identify three or four such times of spiritual renewal.

The First Great Awakening, a wave of revivalism prior to the American Revolution, introduced preachers including Jonathan Edwards, most famous for his 1741 sermon “Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God,” today considered a classic in American literature.

“We need the next spiritual awakening,” Floyd said. “And just as Jonathan Edwards called for years ago, before the First Great Awakening, it’s time for us to come together, it’s time for us to have visible union, and it’s time for us to come together in extraordinary prayer.”

The Second Great Awakening, a religious revival beginning in the late 18th century and lasting until the middle of the 19th century, was strongest in New England and the Midwest.

Another period between the 1850s and early 20th century, marked by the birth of new denominations, the Social Gospel movement and prominent preachers such as Dwight L. Moody, is counted as a Third Great Awakening.

Some scholars add a fourth, the late 1960s and early 1970s, featuring the charismatic movement and rapid growth in conservative denominations including the Southern Baptist Convention.

“It’s been over a hundred years since the United States has experienced the last great, great movement of the Lord,” Floyd said. “We’re overdue. It’s past time. We must have that movement, not simply for the purpose of ourselves, to see thousands come to Christ, but also for the purpose of seeing the Great Commission escalated to its rightful priority in all that we do as the church.”

Out with the old

As the 157th annual session of the Southern Baptist Convention drew to a close June 11, Floyd accepted the gavel from Fred Luter, the first African American ever to serve as president of a convention formed by slaveholders in 1845.

“He will go down in Southern Baptist history as one of the most loved presidents in our lifetime,” Floyd predicted.

Luter welcomed the opportunity to express his gratitude in remarks early in the SBC President’s Address Tuesday night.

“Thank you, Southern Baptists, for allowing me to serve as your president the past two years,” Luter said. “I have been extremely honored to represent you across America and across the world.”

“I would also like to thank the members of Franklin Avenue Baptist Church in New Orleans, who have loaned me out to this convention and to the people all across this country and world the last two years,” Luter said. “Some of them are here tonight. Hundreds of them are watching tonight on the Internet.”

“I will be back to you after next week,” Luter added to the folks back home.

ERLC honors Hobby Lobby founders

The SBC Ethics and Religious Liberty Commission presented the 2014 John Leland Award for Religious Liberty to Steve and Jackie Green, whose family owned business Hobby Lobby is awaiting a decision expected this month from the U.S. Supreme Court on whether owners of for-profit businesses can refuse on religious grounds to obey rules of Obamacare.

ERLC President Russell Moore described the couple, active members of a Southern Baptist church, as “heroes of religious liberty.”

“Because of their courage, the Greens have refused to comply with the Obama administration’s Department of Health and Human Services mandate under the Affordable Care Act that they provide employees with insurance coverage for what they believe to be abortion inducing drugs,” Moore said. “They believe that God is the author of human life, and that every human life, from the moment of conception, is sacred, and they believe that the government is not the lord of their consciences.”

Moore said during the last 200 years Baptists have gotten “used to being out of jail” and sometimes “take religious liberty for granted.” He said it wasn’t always that way.

“Baptists started in prison cells in England because they would gladly say ‘God save the king’ but they knew the difference between the king and God,” Moore said. Similarly, he said, Baptists in colonial America, including the Virginia preacher for whom the Leland award is named, resisted paying for licenses to preach as a matter of conscience.

“We’re living in a time right now in which religious liberty is imperiled at home and around the world, and it is time for us to remember that we have been here before,” Moore said. “The gospel came to us in letters being written out by apostles from jail cells.”

Seminary president apologizes for Muslim flap

Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary President Paige Patterson responded with both an apology and explanation to a question during his report about why he violated written policies by allowing a Palestinian Muslim student to study archaeology in the school’s Ph.D. program.

“I owe the convention an apology, particularly to all of those of you that I have caused sorrow, heartache, disillusionment or any other kind of sorrow,” Patterson said. He also apologized to “the whole convention” for causing strife with what was “my decision and my decision alone.”

Patterson said the student, born into a poor Palestinian family, got to know members of the Southwestern community working alongside them in archaeological digs in the Middle East.

Unable to pursue a Ph.D. in Jordan, where none is available, or in Israel, because he isn’t fluent in Hebrew, and unable to afford a school in the U.S. like Duke, Harvard or Yale, Patterson said the student inquired whether an exception could be made to allow him to study at Southwestern.

Patterson said the student has caused no problems on campus and appears “very open at this point to the gospel of Jesus Christ.”

“I made an exception to a rule that I assumed, probably wrongly, the president has a right to make if he feels that it is that important,” Patterson said.

“I have apologized to you in a heartfelt way,” Patterson said. “I mean it with all my heart. I should not have disrupted the convention and did not do it knowingly. But apparently I did, and I am sorry.”

Patterson added, however, that “it is a different question” from how he will answer for that and similar decisions over the years come Judgment Day.

“I believe when I stand before the Lord God, I’m going to say: ‘Dear God, I violated a policy, but I didn’t want to stand before you with blood on my hands. Dear God, I did the best I knew how,” he said.

The incredible shrinking SBC annual meeting

Unofficial registration at the June 10-11 meeting was 5,294 messengers, up from the 5,103 last year in Houston. The 2011 convention in Phoenix, numbering 4,852 messengers, was the smallest annual meeting since World War II. The last time Southern Baptists met in Baltimore, 1940, the messenger total was 3,776.

The record attendance for an SBC annual meeting was 1985, when 45,519 messengers showed up in Dallas in the heat of a 10-year leadership struggle today some call the “conservative resurgence.”

According to recently compiled statistics, in 2013 there were 46,125 Southern Baptist churches with a total 15.7 million members.

Next year’s convention is scheduled June 16-17 in Columbus, Ohio. Future host cities are St. Louis in 2016, Phoenix in 2017 and Dallas in 2018.

]]>Bob AllenOrganizationsFri, 13 Jun 2014 14:40:58 -0400SBC president ending Boy Scout tieshttp://baptistnews.com/ministry/organizations/item/8599-sbc-president-ending-boy-scout-ties
http://baptistnews.com/ministry/organizations/item/8599-sbc-president-ending-boy-scout-tiesFred Luter, the first black president of the Southern Baptist Convention, says his church is among those cutting ties with the Boy Scouts of America on moral grounds.

By Bob Allen

Southern Baptist Convention President Fred Luter says his church will no longer sponsor a Boy Scout troop after a recent vote to accept Scouts who are openly gay.

"I was a Boy Scout," Luter, pastor of Franklin Avenue Baptist Church in New Orleans, told an Alabama newspaper Friday night. "We have a Boy Scout troop in our church."

Luter presided over last week’s SBC annual meeting, which featured a resolution criticizing the Boy Scouts of America for a new policy that says young people cannot be denied membership on the basis of “sexual orientation or preference alone.”

The resolution stopped short of asking churches to withdraw from the Scouts but supported those that do.

Luter told the Birmingham News the congregation he has led for 25 years will end its involvement with the Boy Scouts because they have taken a position the denomination feels is unbiblical.

"We'll be pulling out of Boy Scouts," Luter said moments before taking the stage at a Gridiron Men's Conference headlined by NFL player Tim Tebow and Chick-fil-A President Dan Cathy.

Luter said Franklin Avenue may offer Royal Ambassadors, a Southern Baptist missions and discipleship organization for boys grades 1-6 administered by Woman’s Missionary Union, as an alternative.

Luter, the first African-American to serve as SBC president, was elected without opposition to a second term at the June 11-12 SBC annual meeting in Houston.

]]>Fred Luter, the first black president of the Southern Baptist Convention, says his church is among those cutting ties with the Boy Scouts of America on moral grounds.

By Bob Allen

Southern Baptist Convention President Fred Luter says his church will no longer sponsor a Boy Scout troop after a recent vote to accept Scouts who are openly gay.

"I was a Boy Scout," Luter, pastor of Franklin Avenue Baptist Church in New Orleans, told an Alabama newspaper Friday night. "We have a Boy Scout troop in our church."

Luter presided over last week’s SBC annual meeting, which featured a resolution criticizing the Boy Scouts of America for a new policy that says young people cannot be denied membership on the basis of “sexual orientation or preference alone.”

The resolution stopped short of asking churches to withdraw from the Scouts but supported those that do.

Luter told the Birmingham News the congregation he has led for 25 years will end its involvement with the Boy Scouts because they have taken a position the denomination feels is unbiblical.

"We'll be pulling out of Boy Scouts," Luter said moments before taking the stage at a Gridiron Men's Conference headlined by NFL player Tim Tebow and Chick-fil-A President Dan Cathy.

Luter said Franklin Avenue may offer Royal Ambassadors, a Southern Baptist missions and discipleship organization for boys grades 1-6 administered by Woman’s Missionary Union, as an alternative.

Luter, the first African-American to serve as SBC president, was elected without opposition to a second term at the June 11-12 SBC annual meeting in Houston.

A Bible-prophecy broadcaster criticized Southern Baptist Convention President Fred Luter for retracting comments made in an interview on his radio show linking North Korea’s nuclear threat to America’s slide into immorality.

“Poor pastor Luter, he wilted under the heat of CNN’s cameras,” radio host Rick Wiles said April 4. “He recanted what he said on TruNews. He tucked his tail between his legs like a frightened puppy. He made Joel Osteen look like the winner of the tough-man contest.”

The night before, Luter, who serves as pastor of Franklin Avenue Baptist Church in New Orleans, went on Anderson Cooper’s CNN program to discuss comments he made on Wiles’ program March 27. There Luter seemed to agree with the Christian radio host that it might be no coincidence that saber-rattling by North Korean dictator Kim Jong-un was occurring at the same time the U.S. Supreme Court was hearing arguments over legalizing gay marriage.

“It could be a possibility,” Luter told Wiles. “I’m not that strong in prophecy, but I would not be surprised that there’s not a connection there, simply because of the fact we’ve seen it happen in Scripture before. I would not be surprised that at the time when we are debating same-sex marriage, at a time when we are debating whether or not we should have gays leading the Boy Scout movement, I don’t think it’s just a coincidence that we have a mad man in Asia who is saying some of the things that he’s saying.”

In his CNN interview, Luter told Cooper that he misspoke and that his comments were misunderstood.

“That was really his view on it,” Luter said about Wiles. “He saw that connection. I said, well man I’m not strong in prophecy, I don’t necessarily see that. It’s possible if you say it is, but I don’t see it. I don’t think there’s any connection about what the guy’s doing in North Korea and what’s happening here in America today, none at all.”

Wiles, who worked for both the Christian Broadcasting Network and Trinity Broadcasting Network before launching his own ministry as a “citizen reporter” in 1998, made it clear that he stands by his words.

“The United States of America is quickly approaching its day of reckoning,” Wiles said. “Since the 1962-63 Supreme Court rulings banning prayer and Bible reading in the public schools to the Roe v. Wade decision legalizing the murder of tens of millions of innocent babies to the upcoming court decision on homosexual marriage, the U.S.A. has been on a steady downhill slide as a nation. We are now in a rapid descent into darkness.”

Wiles said he believes God’s patience with the nation is nearing an end. “It isn’t God who is destroying America. He is trying to save this country,” Wiles said. “We are committing suicide as nation. God is withdrawing His hand of divine protection over this nation. He is stepping back, removing the spiritual dome that for hundreds of years shielded America. He will be silent as America’s enemies encircle this nation and see that our moral defense shield is down and we are vulnerable and ripe for destruction.”

Wiles lamented pastors who remain silent. “Where are the real men of God in this country?” he asked. “Have they all lost courage to speak for God when this nation is facing destruction?”

A Bible-prophecy broadcaster criticized Southern Baptist Convention President Fred Luter for retracting comments made in an interview on his radio show linking North Korea’s nuclear threat to America’s slide into immorality.

“Poor pastor Luter, he wilted under the heat of CNN’s cameras,” radio host Rick Wiles said April 4. “He recanted what he said on TruNews. He tucked his tail between his legs like a frightened puppy. He made Joel Osteen look like the winner of the tough-man contest.”

The night before, Luter, who serves as pastor of Franklin Avenue Baptist Church in New Orleans, went on Anderson Cooper’s CNN program to discuss comments he made on Wiles’ program March 27. There Luter seemed to agree with the Christian radio host that it might be no coincidence that saber-rattling by North Korean dictator Kim Jong-un was occurring at the same time the U.S. Supreme Court was hearing arguments over legalizing gay marriage.

“It could be a possibility,” Luter told Wiles. “I’m not that strong in prophecy, but I would not be surprised that there’s not a connection there, simply because of the fact we’ve seen it happen in Scripture before. I would not be surprised that at the time when we are debating same-sex marriage, at a time when we are debating whether or not we should have gays leading the Boy Scout movement, I don’t think it’s just a coincidence that we have a mad man in Asia who is saying some of the things that he’s saying.”

In his CNN interview, Luter told Cooper that he misspoke and that his comments were misunderstood.

“That was really his view on it,” Luter said about Wiles. “He saw that connection. I said, well man I’m not strong in prophecy, I don’t necessarily see that. It’s possible if you say it is, but I don’t see it. I don’t think there’s any connection about what the guy’s doing in North Korea and what’s happening here in America today, none at all.”

Wiles, who worked for both the Christian Broadcasting Network and Trinity Broadcasting Network before launching his own ministry as a “citizen reporter” in 1998, made it clear that he stands by his words.

“The United States of America is quickly approaching its day of reckoning,” Wiles said. “Since the 1962-63 Supreme Court rulings banning prayer and Bible reading in the public schools to the Roe v. Wade decision legalizing the murder of tens of millions of innocent babies to the upcoming court decision on homosexual marriage, the U.S.A. has been on a steady downhill slide as a nation. We are now in a rapid descent into darkness.”

Wiles said he believes God’s patience with the nation is nearing an end. “It isn’t God who is destroying America. He is trying to save this country,” Wiles said. “We are committing suicide as nation. God is withdrawing His hand of divine protection over this nation. He is stepping back, removing the spiritual dome that for hundreds of years shielded America. He will be silent as America’s enemies encircle this nation and see that our moral defense shield is down and we are vulnerable and ripe for destruction.”

Wiles lamented pastors who remain silent. “Where are the real men of God in this country?” he asked. “Have they all lost courage to speak for God when this nation is facing destruction?”

]]>Bob AllenMedia and ArtsMon, 08 Apr 2013 09:33:06 -0400SBC leader retracts radio commenthttp://baptistnews.com/ministry/people/item/8373-sbc-leader-retracts-controversial-comment
http://baptistnews.com/ministry/people/item/8373-sbc-leader-retracts-controversial-commentAfter being criticized for linking same-sex marriage and gays in the Boy Scouts to North Korea’s threat to start a nuclear war, SBC President Fred Luter says he misspoke and believes there is no connection between the two.

By Bob Allen

The president of the Southern Baptist Convention said April 3 on CNN that he misspoke and was misunderstood in an interview on Christian radio linking North Korea’s nuclear threat to arguments about gay marriage in the United States.

Liberal blogs, including People For the American Way’s Right Wing Watch, picked up audio of comments by SBC President Fred Luter aired March 27 on TruNews with Religious Right talk-show host Rick Wiles.

Wiles asked Luter, pastor of Franklin Avenue Baptist Church in New Orleans, about saber rattling by North Korean dictator President Kim Jong-un occurring at the same time the U.S. Supreme Court was hearing arguments on same-sex marriage.

“You got this happening over here and you got this happening over here: could the two be connected?” Wiles asked. “Could our slide into immorality be what is unleashing this mad man over here in Asia to punish us?”

Luter answered: “It could be a possibility. I’m not that strong in prophecy, but I would not be surprised that there’s not a connection there simply because of the fact we’ve seen it happen in Scripture before. I would not be surprised that at the time when we are debating same-sex marriage, at a time when we are debating whether or not we should have gays leading the Boy Scout movement, I don’t think it’s just a coincidence that we have a mad man in Asia who is saying some of the things that he’s saying.”

Luter appeared on CNN’s Anderson Cooper 360 to explain whether he stands by his comments.

“That was really his view on it,” Luter said about Wiles. “He saw that connection. I said, well man I’m not strong in prophecy, I don’t necessarily see that. It’s possible if you say it is, but I don’t see it. I don’t think there’s any connection about what the guy’s doing in North Korea and what’s happening here in America today, none at all.”

After Cooper played the clip of Luter’s original statement, the pastor claimed he was talking about the reference Wiles was making.

“The Scripture I was talking about was the situation in Sodom and Gomorrah, where a city was destroyed because of that type of activity, but I was not directly connecting it with North Korea and what’s happening here in America,” Luter said.

Cooper, who is openly gay, asked Luter about his response to another question from Wiles: What are the ramifications for America if the Supreme Court rules that same-sex marriage is a constitutional right?

“Oh, man, I would hate to think of it,” Luter said on TruRadio. “You talked about Sodom and Gomorrah in your introduction, and I can just see that happening man. It would be like America is pointing its finger at God and saying: ‘I know what your word says God, I know what the Scripture says but we want to be our own king, we want to do things our own way.’ The last time a nation did that they were destroyed, Sodom and Gomorrah was destroyed. I just see things getting consistently worse in America because of our decisions that we’ve made to just get farther and farther away from God and God’s word.”

Luter told Cooper the problem is not only with gay marriage. “I think a whole lot of decisions we are making in America – all the babies we are killing as a result of abortion, the racism problem that we have in America, the crime problem that we have in America, with guys going into movie theaters and shooting people, going to political rallies and shooting people -- it’s a combination.”

“It is not just the situation with gay marriage,” Luter said. “It’s a number of things that our nation is embracing and that we cannot deny that a lot of the things that are happening in America are the results or consequences of those decisions.”

Luter told Cooper his problem with the gay marriage debate is not whether same-sex couples can form civil unions, but he doesn’t want to call it marriage, which he says the Bible defines as between a man and a woman.

Luter told Cooper that if he had it to do over again, he would answer Wiles’ question in a different way. “That was misspoken,” he said. “That was misunderstood, and it was not what I meant. I did not mean that at all, and I’m glad we can clear it up on your show.”

]]>After being criticized for linking same-sex marriage and gays in the Boy Scouts to North Korea’s threat to start a nuclear war, SBC President Fred Luter says he misspoke and believes there is no connection between the two.

By Bob Allen

The president of the Southern Baptist Convention said April 3 on CNN that he misspoke and was misunderstood in an interview on Christian radio linking North Korea’s nuclear threat to arguments about gay marriage in the United States.

Liberal blogs, including People For the American Way’s Right Wing Watch, picked up audio of comments by SBC President Fred Luter aired March 27 on TruNews with Religious Right talk-show host Rick Wiles.

Wiles asked Luter, pastor of Franklin Avenue Baptist Church in New Orleans, about saber rattling by North Korean dictator President Kim Jong-un occurring at the same time the U.S. Supreme Court was hearing arguments on same-sex marriage.

“You got this happening over here and you got this happening over here: could the two be connected?” Wiles asked. “Could our slide into immorality be what is unleashing this mad man over here in Asia to punish us?”

Luter answered: “It could be a possibility. I’m not that strong in prophecy, but I would not be surprised that there’s not a connection there simply because of the fact we’ve seen it happen in Scripture before. I would not be surprised that at the time when we are debating same-sex marriage, at a time when we are debating whether or not we should have gays leading the Boy Scout movement, I don’t think it’s just a coincidence that we have a mad man in Asia who is saying some of the things that he’s saying.”

Luter appeared on CNN’s Anderson Cooper 360 to explain whether he stands by his comments.

“That was really his view on it,” Luter said about Wiles. “He saw that connection. I said, well man I’m not strong in prophecy, I don’t necessarily see that. It’s possible if you say it is, but I don’t see it. I don’t think there’s any connection about what the guy’s doing in North Korea and what’s happening here in America today, none at all.”

After Cooper played the clip of Luter’s original statement, the pastor claimed he was talking about the reference Wiles was making.

“The Scripture I was talking about was the situation in Sodom and Gomorrah, where a city was destroyed because of that type of activity, but I was not directly connecting it with North Korea and what’s happening here in America,” Luter said.

Cooper, who is openly gay, asked Luter about his response to another question from Wiles: What are the ramifications for America if the Supreme Court rules that same-sex marriage is a constitutional right?

“Oh, man, I would hate to think of it,” Luter said on TruRadio. “You talked about Sodom and Gomorrah in your introduction, and I can just see that happening man. It would be like America is pointing its finger at God and saying: ‘I know what your word says God, I know what the Scripture says but we want to be our own king, we want to do things our own way.’ The last time a nation did that they were destroyed, Sodom and Gomorrah was destroyed. I just see things getting consistently worse in America because of our decisions that we’ve made to just get farther and farther away from God and God’s word.”

Luter told Cooper the problem is not only with gay marriage. “I think a whole lot of decisions we are making in America – all the babies we are killing as a result of abortion, the racism problem that we have in America, the crime problem that we have in America, with guys going into movie theaters and shooting people, going to political rallies and shooting people -- it’s a combination.”

“It is not just the situation with gay marriage,” Luter said. “It’s a number of things that our nation is embracing and that we cannot deny that a lot of the things that are happening in America are the results or consequences of those decisions.”

Luter told Cooper his problem with the gay marriage debate is not whether same-sex couples can form civil unions, but he doesn’t want to call it marriage, which he says the Bible defines as between a man and a woman.

Luter told Cooper that if he had it to do over again, he would answer Wiles’ question in a different way. “That was misspoken,” he said. “That was misunderstood, and it was not what I meant. I did not mean that at all, and I’m glad we can clear it up on your show.”

The president of the Southern Baptist Convention warned the Boy Scouts of America that the nation’s second-largest faith group behind Roman Catholics will be watching when the organization decides at its upcoming annual meeting May 22-24 whether to drop its ban on gay members and leaders.

Fred Luter, pastor of Franklin Avenue Baptist Church in New Orleans, said in a March 27 interview on Christian radio that the more than 45,000 Southern Baptist churches in the United States and Canada have more than passing interest in a proposal to change the Boy Scouts’ current policy against granting membership “to individuals who are open or avowed homosexuals."

“All the Southern Baptist churches that I’ve talked to -- and I’ve gone around the country quite a bit in the last seven, eight months that I’ve been in this position -- all the ones that I’ve talked to are really in an uproar about this, because most of our Southern Baptist churches have Boy Scout troops in them, including the church that I pastor,” Luter said on Rick Wiles’ TruNews radio. “So it’s something that we’re watching.”

Luter said it would be “tragic” for the Boy Scouts to change the policy, because that would force Southern Baptists and churches of other denominations to re-evaluate their support for the organization.

“If this thing passes, I know a number of Southern Baptist churches that would withdraw their Boy Scout troops from the Boy Scout organization, because there’s no way we can compromise and allow something like that to happen,” he said. “It will really cause a lot of problems in Southern Baptist churches across the country.”

“I see a lot of churches just withdrawing their troops from the Boy Scouts,” Luter said. “I know our church will. There is no way we will continue to be a part of it by allowing that to happen. It just definitely would not happen here at Franklin Avenue Baptist Church.”

Luter said dropping the ban “would have an adverse effect, I’m sure,” on the Boy Scouts. “It’s something that I’m just amazed they are even considering,” he said, “but we’re living in a time when people want to be politically right.”

Luter, the first African-American to serve as president of the 16-million-member denominational group, said he is surprised that conservatives have capitulated on so many things since the re-election of President Obama.

“I’m just amazed at some of the compromises that we’re making in the conservative movement,” Luter said. “Whenever we compromise with the enemy -- whenever we compromise our principles, our morals, our values -- that is definitely not a good thing for us. It can only divide us more and it can only separate us more.”

Luter said standing up over battles like gay marriage is a spiritual issue.

“When I think about Jerry Falwell -- who’s now gone home with the Lord -- when he started his Moral Majority, he was one who just stood on the housetop and said: ‘We will not stand for this as believers. We will not stand for this as those of us who love Jesus Christ,’” Luter said. “It’s now probably time for someone like a Jerry Falwell to once again challenge the believers across the country -- to say ‘Hey folks, it’s time for us to stand up and be the church.’”

Luter said he believes compromises by conservatives are harming the movement’s reputation with politicians. “They don’t see that it has that much effect any more, where they can possibly not win elections, where they can possibly not get votes,” he said. “I don’t think they see it as a threat anymore.”

Luter said his emphasis as SBC president is summarized in the theme he chose for this year’s annual meeting, scheduled June 11-12 in Houston, “Revive Us That We May Be One.”

“We are in desperate need of revival in America, and if revival is going to happen, it’s not going to happen in Washington, D.C., from the government,” Luter said. “It’s not going to happen from the governor’s office, the mayor’s office. It’s not going to happen with police chiefs, with the criminal court system. If revival is going to happen, it is going to happen starting with the churches.”

]]>Pastor Fred Luter says a decision by the Boy Scouts to allow openly gay members would have an adverse effect among Southern Baptists.

By Bob Allen

The president of the Southern Baptist Convention warned the Boy Scouts of America that the nation’s second-largest faith group behind Roman Catholics will be watching when the organization decides at its upcoming annual meeting May 22-24 whether to drop its ban on gay members and leaders.

Fred Luter, pastor of Franklin Avenue Baptist Church in New Orleans, said in a March 27 interview on Christian radio that the more than 45,000 Southern Baptist churches in the United States and Canada have more than passing interest in a proposal to change the Boy Scouts’ current policy against granting membership “to individuals who are open or avowed homosexuals."

“All the Southern Baptist churches that I’ve talked to -- and I’ve gone around the country quite a bit in the last seven, eight months that I’ve been in this position -- all the ones that I’ve talked to are really in an uproar about this, because most of our Southern Baptist churches have Boy Scout troops in them, including the church that I pastor,” Luter said on Rick Wiles’ TruNews radio. “So it’s something that we’re watching.”

Luter said it would be “tragic” for the Boy Scouts to change the policy, because that would force Southern Baptists and churches of other denominations to re-evaluate their support for the organization.

“If this thing passes, I know a number of Southern Baptist churches that would withdraw their Boy Scout troops from the Boy Scout organization, because there’s no way we can compromise and allow something like that to happen,” he said. “It will really cause a lot of problems in Southern Baptist churches across the country.”

“I see a lot of churches just withdrawing their troops from the Boy Scouts,” Luter said. “I know our church will. There is no way we will continue to be a part of it by allowing that to happen. It just definitely would not happen here at Franklin Avenue Baptist Church.”

Luter said dropping the ban “would have an adverse effect, I’m sure,” on the Boy Scouts. “It’s something that I’m just amazed they are even considering,” he said, “but we’re living in a time when people want to be politically right.”

Luter, the first African-American to serve as president of the 16-million-member denominational group, said he is surprised that conservatives have capitulated on so many things since the re-election of President Obama.

“I’m just amazed at some of the compromises that we’re making in the conservative movement,” Luter said. “Whenever we compromise with the enemy -- whenever we compromise our principles, our morals, our values -- that is definitely not a good thing for us. It can only divide us more and it can only separate us more.”

Luter said standing up over battles like gay marriage is a spiritual issue.

“When I think about Jerry Falwell -- who’s now gone home with the Lord -- when he started his Moral Majority, he was one who just stood on the housetop and said: ‘We will not stand for this as believers. We will not stand for this as those of us who love Jesus Christ,’” Luter said. “It’s now probably time for someone like a Jerry Falwell to once again challenge the believers across the country -- to say ‘Hey folks, it’s time for us to stand up and be the church.’”

Luter said he believes compromises by conservatives are harming the movement’s reputation with politicians. “They don’t see that it has that much effect any more, where they can possibly not win elections, where they can possibly not get votes,” he said. “I don’t think they see it as a threat anymore.”

Luter said his emphasis as SBC president is summarized in the theme he chose for this year’s annual meeting, scheduled June 11-12 in Houston, “Revive Us That We May Be One.”

“We are in desperate need of revival in America, and if revival is going to happen, it’s not going to happen in Washington, D.C., from the government,” Luter said. “It’s not going to happen from the governor’s office, the mayor’s office. It’s not going to happen with police chiefs, with the criminal court system. If revival is going to happen, it is going to happen starting with the churches.”

Southern Baptist Convention President Fred Luter is among nearly 250 Louisiana clergy signing an open letter opposing Gov. Bobby Jindal’s plan to raise the state sales tax to 5.88 percent.

Luter, pastor of Franklin Avenue Baptist Church in New Orleans, is among names identified as the United Faith Community of Louisiana in an open letter voicing “deep concern” about the Republican governor’s tax proposal for the upcoming legislative session.

According to the New Orleans Times-Picayune, the planned increase in the sales tax would raise the current rate by about 47 percent and would come on top of local sales taxes. Residents in New Orleans, for example, would pay a combined rate of about 11 percent under the plan.

Clergy members say Louisiana already has one of the most regressive tax systems in the nation, putting a disproportionately high burden on low- and moderate-income families. The chief reason, they said in the letter, is the state’s heavy reliance on the sales tax.

“It is universally recognized that sales taxes create a disproportionate burden on poor and moderate-income families, who spend nearly all they earn,” the letter said.

The clergy leaders said increasing the sales tax would “deepen the root causes behind the unfair and regressive nature of our state’s tax structure and worsen the burden for poor and moderate-income families in our community.”

Further, they said, the additional burden on lower-income families is not to fund important needs but instead “to decrease the tax burden for those members of our community who are most blessed with wealth and resources.”

Clergy leaders called on Jindal to reframe tax reform in ways that “would be just and in accord with the ethical frameworks of our faith traditions.”

“Tax reform should not increase the sales tax rate or take any other steps that make our tax structure more regressive than it is already,” the clergy said. “New sources of revenue should be used not merely to redistribute the tax burden from one group to another, but to invest in high priorities for our state, such as health care, education, human services and infrastructure, which have seen significant and far-reaching cuts in recent years.”

The clergy leaders also expressed doubt that the governor’s proposed tax plan will be sustainable over the long term. Sales typically grow slower than personal income, meaning the state would be moving from a faster-growing revenue source to a slower one.

Jindal has been identified as a possible presidential candidate in 2016. A former U.S. congressman and aide to President George W. Bush, he was elected Louisiana governor in 2007.

Jindal was mentioned as a potential vice presidential candidate in 2008 before Republican candidate John McCain settled on Sarah Palin as his running mate. He delivered the GOP response to President Obama’s speech to a joint session of Congress in 2009, technically not a State of the Union address because Obama had just recently been inaugurated.

The son of parents who emigrated from India, Jindal was raised in a Hindu home but now is Roman Catholic. He credits a Southern Baptist preacher, Tommy French, pastor emeritus of Jefferson Baptist Church in Baton Rouge, La., with leading him to Christ.

]]>Clergy from denominations including the Southern Baptist Convention say a tax plan proposed by Louisiana’s governor would harm the poor.

By Bob Allen

Southern Baptist Convention President Fred Luter is among nearly 250 Louisiana clergy signing an open letter opposing Gov. Bobby Jindal’s plan to raise the state sales tax to 5.88 percent.

Luter, pastor of Franklin Avenue Baptist Church in New Orleans, is among names identified as the United Faith Community of Louisiana in an open letter voicing “deep concern” about the Republican governor’s tax proposal for the upcoming legislative session.

According to the New Orleans Times-Picayune, the planned increase in the sales tax would raise the current rate by about 47 percent and would come on top of local sales taxes. Residents in New Orleans, for example, would pay a combined rate of about 11 percent under the plan.

Clergy members say Louisiana already has one of the most regressive tax systems in the nation, putting a disproportionately high burden on low- and moderate-income families. The chief reason, they said in the letter, is the state’s heavy reliance on the sales tax.

“It is universally recognized that sales taxes create a disproportionate burden on poor and moderate-income families, who spend nearly all they earn,” the letter said.

The clergy leaders said increasing the sales tax would “deepen the root causes behind the unfair and regressive nature of our state’s tax structure and worsen the burden for poor and moderate-income families in our community.”

Further, they said, the additional burden on lower-income families is not to fund important needs but instead “to decrease the tax burden for those members of our community who are most blessed with wealth and resources.”

Clergy leaders called on Jindal to reframe tax reform in ways that “would be just and in accord with the ethical frameworks of our faith traditions.”

“Tax reform should not increase the sales tax rate or take any other steps that make our tax structure more regressive than it is already,” the clergy said. “New sources of revenue should be used not merely to redistribute the tax burden from one group to another, but to invest in high priorities for our state, such as health care, education, human services and infrastructure, which have seen significant and far-reaching cuts in recent years.”

The clergy leaders also expressed doubt that the governor’s proposed tax plan will be sustainable over the long term. Sales typically grow slower than personal income, meaning the state would be moving from a faster-growing revenue source to a slower one.

Jindal has been identified as a possible presidential candidate in 2016. A former U.S. congressman and aide to President George W. Bush, he was elected Louisiana governor in 2007.

Jindal was mentioned as a potential vice presidential candidate in 2008 before Republican candidate John McCain settled on Sarah Palin as his running mate. He delivered the GOP response to President Obama’s speech to a joint session of Congress in 2009, technically not a State of the Union address because Obama had just recently been inaugurated.

The son of parents who emigrated from India, Jindal was raised in a Hindu home but now is Roman Catholic. He credits a Southern Baptist preacher, Tommy French, pastor emeritus of Jefferson Baptist Church in Baton Rouge, La., with leading him to Christ.